Just heard about this on the news, even though it happened over the weekend. The news media thinks this was someone’s idea of a prank.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A freight train rammed into a stolen bulldozer after it was left on the tracks, possibly as a prank, police said.
The St. Louis-area crash didn’t cause a derailment or any injuries, but the CSX locomotive and the bulldozer were seriously damaged, according to Collinsville Assistant Police Chief Terry Bell.
The city-owned bulldozer was stolen from a construction site late Friday or early Saturday, Bell said. The crash happened early Saturday.
“If they were going to steal it, the fact that they left it right on the tracks makes it suspicious,” Bell said.
There was one grade crossing in Maryland on the corridor years ago and a GG1 hit a lowboy with a bull dozer at speed after the truck hung up crossing the tracks. It threw the bulldozer four tracks over and only derailed the lead truck on the GG1. Don’t know about the engineers pants though.
What is happening in this world? In yesterdays newspaper, there were 3 vandalisims reported on the front page alone! One totalling at over 4 million dollars in damage! Some yayhoo took a few dozers, and trackhoes working on a natural gas pipeline south of Rock Springs, and crashed them into each other along with damaging many other things!!! Also on the front page was somebody who broke into the lower shop at our fairgrouds, punctured all the 55 gallon oil drums and spray painted the brand new water truck! They said that was a total of over $3000. And something that may be connected, but it is impossible to know, is that a few weeks ago, somebody threw a rock through the window of our historic freight depot. They didn’t take anything, but they did manage to destroy a box full of buildings that one of our members had spent countless hours building over the past 20 years! Granted the totals that we can count and turn in to the city for damages only count the $100 for glass, $20 for other supplies, as well as my time fixing it are no make up for what the hours and materials on those buildings were… and jsut a drop in the bucket compared to the $4 mil incurred this weekend… Why must people do stupid things like this?
CSX train rams bulldozer after apparent prank (The following story by Elizabeth Donald appeared on the News-Democrat website on January 15.)
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — A possible prank led to a train crash early Saturday morning near Glidden Park.
At some point late Friday or early Saturday, someone stole a bulldozer from a construction site on Mill Road, according to Assistant Police Chief Terry Bell. The bulldozer was left on the train tracks at Lebanon Road, near Glidden Park.
At 1:30 a.m., a CSX Railroad locomotive hit the bulldozer.
“It did not derail, but it did serious damage to the train and to the bulldozer,” Bell said.
No one was hurt in the collision. “My understanding is it incapacitated the train for a while,” Bell said.
Bell said police suspect it was a prank. “If they were going to steal it, the fact that they left it right on the tracks makes it suspicious,” he said.
The bulldozer belonged to the city of Collinsville, and had been used on a city project working along Mill Road.
CSX Railroad officials could not be reached for comment.
This is asinine. Unless the railroad is at fault, how is this relevant? If you actually believe that the railroad is at fault, what makes you think that?
I hope when they catch the low lifes (and that is being nice by calling them life). They get tied behind a train get dragged for a at least 10 miles AT SPEED.